Family Farmers Plead for No New Doha Round (09.04.09). As trade ministers meet in New Delhi, India today to revive the WTO Doha Round, the National Family Farm Coalition today denounced efforts to further liberalize agricultural markets. Ben Burkett, a Mississippi farmer and NFFC president, said, “We need more food sovereignty, not more free trade…Thanks to the WTO, many countries’ food security is now dependent on highly speculative global markets. This was the root cause of many of the food riots in 2008.”

U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Criticizes Clinton/Vilsack Tour of Kenyan Pro-Biotech Institute (08.04.09) – On the eve of an upcoming visit to the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Representatives Donald Payne and Nita Lowey, the U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis today challenged the Obama Administration’s plans to fund a new “Green Revolution” in Africa in tandem with the Gates Foundation. The Working Group believes a new approach to agriculture research is needed instead of the broken status quo that emphasizes biotechnology and industrial agriculture models.

U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis Urges G8 to Reject Failed Green Revolution Policies for Africa (04.16.09). – The U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis urged Agricultural Ministers at the G8 meeting in Treviso, Italy, to reject the approach of S. 384, the Global Food Security Act sponsored by Senators Specter and Casey, and the push for more chemical-intensive agriculture and genetic engineering. Instead, the G8 should listen to the recommendations of the recent UN/World Bank-backed report recommending more agro-ecological practices as the best way to solve global hunger.

U.S. Family Farmers Applaud Demise of Doha Negotiations (8.13.08) – NFFC welcomed the recent failure of Doha Round negotiations at the World Trade Organization, as India and other developing countries defended their right to food sovereignty. Since 1993, the WTO’s disastrous agriculture policies have impoverished farmers worldwide, reduced food security, and led to environmental devastation and a global food crisis – all in the name of ‘free’ trade.